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Thursday, November 10, 2011

NaBloWriMo Day 10

Disclaimer: I'm a librarian, which doesn't necessarily coincide with loving books, but it helps.

I love to read. I'd rather read than watch TV, which is good since my family tends to monopolize the TV anyway. I have 3 bookcases, all of which are double- or triple-stacked with books I have yet to read, and yet I still buy more.

My Mom taught me how to read when I was 18 months old. She'd found some kit (I think it was called 'Teach Your Baby to Read') at a garage sale and modified it. It was something where the parent was supposed to hold up something like 5 flashcards and say, "This says _______." This was supposed to happen a couple of times a day, I think, but she just did 1 flash card at a time and then taped it on the wall. When my Dad got home (if he wasn't out on a fire), he'd take me over to the wall and ask what the word was. Mom said sometimes words would come up that she hadn't taught me what they were for real, like 'elbow', in which case she would say, "This says 'elbow', and this IS your elbow."

This worked pretty well, I think. I can't remember a time when I wasn't able to read. I used the same method with my Kid, starting around when she turned 2, and she's an avid reader too. Well, except when she's in school--since she's taking a full college load this year, she only has time to read her textbooks, lucky her.

My husband says (half-joking, mostly seriously) that he could drop me in any town any where, and within an hour I'dve found the library. This is probably true. When I studied abroad in Scotland between my junior and senior year of undergrad school (the summer of 2006), I found the library in St Andrews in 45 minutes (and got a library card in another 5), and the Central branch of the Edinburgh library the first day (but I didn't get a library card there).

I can do (and have done) without lots of things in this life. Except books. That's where I draw my line in the sand.